Asteroid the Size of a Football Stadium Just Whizzed Past Earth — and It's Coming Back in 2032
The massive space rock is about 890 feet in size — more than double the size of the Empire State Building in New York City
An asteroid the size of a football stadium whizzed past Earth on Friday, and it will be back in less than a decade.
The massive space rock is about 890 feet in size, according to NASA. (That’s more than double the size of the Empire State Building in New York City.)
At its closest point, the asteroid was about 1,770,000 miles away from the planet, or nearly 7.5 times the distance between the Earth and Moon, the agency said.
Related: Asteroid the Size of Empire State Building Could Hit Earth in Future, NASA Says
Objects larger than about 150 meters in size are deemed “potentially hazardous” should they get within 4.6 million miles (19.5 times the distance to the moon) of the planet, according to NASA.
Experts suggest asteroids of this size have the potential to wipe out cities should they make contact with Earth, according to Business Insider. Some call these asteroids “city killers.”
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However, the asteroid is not considered a “planet killer,” according to Space.com. It is at least 70 times smaller than the Vredefort meteor, which wiped out dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago.
This was the asteroid’s first time approaching Earth since 2016, according to USA Today.
Related: Space Smells Like Gunpowder, Burnt Meat and Alcohol, Astronauts Say
The space rock, which was discovered in 2008, likely will not return to the area until around 2032, per the Associated Press.
Three other asteroids are expected to zoom past Earth on Friday, though they are described as being closer to the sizes of a house or airplane.
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